


have my wicked with you

by liionne



Series: A thousand ways to meet [39]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Movie Fusion, Fluff, M/M, What's Your Number
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2018-02-09 00:46:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1962603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"I need your help." Leonard said, looking pointedly at his face and not the newspaper he was using to cover his junk. "Remember how you said you were good at digging up dirt?"</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>"You've got herpes?" Jim asked, head tilting. "I didn't expect that from you Bones, but I guess I could help you-"</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>"No, dumbass." Leonard snapped, watching as Jim chuckled. "I just need to get in touch with some people I... lost touch with."</i>
</p>
<p>What's Your Number AU: Leonard needs Jim, the son of a cop who's good at digging up dirt, to help him find an ex that's worth a second try so that he doesn't raise his number of sexual partners.</p>
            </blockquote>





	have my wicked with you

**Author's Note:**

> this literally took me 3 hours to write and I'm too lazy to check it, so I apologise for errors. This is based off my all time favourite movie What's Your Number, and it's been a long time coming to be honest. The title is from the song Wicked Way by Ben Taylor.

Leonard had never really been one for settling. He hadn't been the judge of that fact; all of his past girlfriends had apparently decided that he wasn't good enough, not for family life, and they all left eventually. And not only that, but he had had an extortionate number of partners. Seriously. More partners than you could shake a stick at. And the CDC just realised a figure of 6, being the number of sexual partners a man has in his lifetime.

And Leonard is way, _way_ higher than six.

But he only realised that at the engagement party of his best friend, M'Benga. Poor M'Benga had asked him to be best man, not knowing that after that pretty big realisation, Leonard was going to take to drink pretty heavily.

His speech consisted of a lot of bad-mouthing of the bride, even worse about her mother, and a little about his mother thrown in for the mix.

Everyone, except for the drunken McCoy, was mortified. And even better, he managed to pull at the post-party trip to the bar, a doctor who had once been an intern of his, before moving away for her residency.

Which promptly put his number up to 20.

When he woke in the morning, he had a head ache that made him feel like he was dying. He groaned, and turned over, rolling at least halfway over the bed before he came into contact with another body, and he groaned internally.

He _knew_ he'd done something bad last night.

It didn't take long before she woke up too, smiling. Leonard did his best to usher her out of the apartment, because there was obviously nothing between them, no chance that she was going to stay and be his wife or anything, because she was half his age and half as mature and she was actually kind of annoying, when he was sober.

But she just wouldn't _go_.

"Can you make coffee?" She asked, leaning against the doorframe in one of his shirts and a pair of her own jeans from the night before. "I can't function without my coffee in the morning."

"Well y'know, there's a Starbucks on the corner of this block, so you can stop in on your way out." Leonard said, giving her his best polite smile as he handed her the crumpled shirt and her shoes.

"Oh, ick. No, I hate that barista style crap. Tastes like plastic. And my shift doesn't start 'til twelve, so I've not got anywhere to be." She said, moving towards the sofa.

Leonard didn't know how to argue; he was chewing the inside of his lip when there was a knock at the door.

"Hey, Bones." Jim said, Jim-from-1701, giving him that mischievous grin that never seemed to be off his face. "Mind if I come in for a while? Got locked out of my apartment, I'm waiting for my friend to run up with the spare key."

Leonard grimaced. He'd had a few run-ins with Jim Kirk before. They had met briefly at a barbecue that someone in their building had tried to throw up on the roof; it had went horribly wrong and resulted in a lot of food poisoning, but that was beside the point. Jim was leering and he was flirty, overly flirty, and he was cocky. He was a well known womanizer- not that he stuck solely to women.

"Sure." Leonard sighed. "Come on in. So uh-" He tried to think of the girl's name, and felt awful when he couldn't. He shook his head to clear it, and continued, "-I think my neighbour needs my help, I'm sorry-"

"That's fine." She smiled, stepping close to him, reaching up on her tiptoes to meet his lips. Jim was smirking; Leonard wondered if he looked as uncomfortable as he felt. "We'll just go to dinner tonight to make up for it."

"Tonight-?" Leonard began, but he was interrupted by Jim, speaking from somewhere off to his left.

"Oh he can't tonight." Jim lied. Flawlessly. "Tenants meeting."

"Right!" Leonard agreed, and he as maybe being too enthusiastic, but he really needed her to go. "Tenants meeting. Sorry. But I've got your number, so uh, I can call you or text you or whatever, and arrange a better time-"

"Sure thing, Leo." She smiled, and before he could stop her she pulled him down by the back of his neck, into a kiss that was far too full of tongue and clacking teeth, and he pulled away with what he was sure was not his saliva in his mouth.

With a grimace, he opened the door. "Uh- I'll see you later, then."

She waved her goodbye, and Leonard squinted as he watched the door to Jim's apartment open, a guy with dark, shiny looking hair stepping out and retreating down the stairs. Leonard shut his apartment door, and turned to Jim.

"You didn't think the guy in your apartment could've helped with bein' locked out?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at him.

Jim gave a laugh that sounded totally guilty, and rubbed the back of his neck. "We've all got people we gotta get away from, right?"

"I haven't got anyone to get away from." Leonard argued, finally turning to the kitchenette to make the coffee.

Jim just chuckled. "Sure you haven't. That's what that was all about, right? And about the girl a few weeks ago? And I'm sure there was a guy here not too long ago too-"

"Have you been stalking me?" Leonard asked, eyes still narrowed.

Jim shook his head. "Nope. Come from a family of cops; I'm good at digging up dirt, and I'm good at noticing things. And I'm definitely watching you."

That sounded far creepier than he thought Jim meant it to be, but he was still leering. In response, Leonard walked to the front door, and opened it. "The coast is clear." He said mockingly, arching his eyebrows at him.

Jim grinned as he left, giving him a salute. "Thanks, Bones."

~*~

When Leonard later ran into an ex of his, a certain Nyota Uhura who had once been pretty disgusting and was now frankly _gorgeous_ , he had an idea.

Why try to find someone new, and raise his number, when he could just find an ex who may well have improved with time?

And so he found himself pounding on Jim Kirk's door the next morning, and hoping to god he would be fully dressed.

He wasn't.

"I need your help." Leonard said, looking pointedly at his face and not the newspaper he was using to cover his junk. "Remember how you said you were good at digging up dirt?"

"You've got herpes?" Jim asked, head tilting. "I didn't expect that from you Bones, but I guess I could help you-"

"No, dumbass." Leonard snapped, watching as Jim chuckled. "I just need to get in touch with some people I... lost touch with."

"This feels weird." Jim said, lips pursing. "Sorry. Not helping. Not gonna do it. Find someone else."

Leonard was about to protest, when Jim shut the door in his face. With a growl, Leonard returned to his own apartment. Only to come back rather promptly, flinging the door open and charging inside.

"Jim! Jim, c'mon, you gotta go! Mom's in the hospital- she slipped in the shower or something, she might have broken her leg, we gotta go!" He picked up Jim's clothes, his jeans and his shoes and his jacket, as he'd already put his underwear back on. He turned to the girl sat on his sofa in what he assumed was Jim's shirt, and said, "I'm so sorry, you seem great, but we really gotta go-"

He herded Jim out of the door, and into his own apartment.

"We look nothing alike." Jim said, as he took his pile of clothing from him, stepping into the jeans.

"Doesn't matter. You got out, didn't you?" Leonard asked, folding his arms across his chest. He had a point and he knew it. "I need your help. And I'm willing to offer you my apartment to hide in if you'll help me."

"Will you feed me? Because y'know, being a big wealthy doctor, I think you can afford to. And as a struggling musician, who's really down on his luck, I could use the favour." Jim said. He in turn crossed his arms over his chest, copying Leonard's behavior. Leonard had totally assumed the musician thing, and not just from the guitar in his apartment.

Leonard tried to hold his resolve, but then he sighed. "Fine." He conceded. "I'll feed you."

Jim grinned, and pulled his t-shirt over his head. "Then we have a deal."

~*~

Two nights later, he meets Jim at a very familiar bar around the corner from his apartment. He slid into a booth where Jim was sat in a bar, and asked, "You found Pamela Branch?"

Jim nodded. "Mm hm. There she is."

He nodded to behind the bar, and Leonard watched as she leaned over in her ridiculously low cut shirt, flicking a lock of blonde hair over her shoulder. She ran her tongue over her lips, and swayed her hips as she turned around to grab a glass from the bar.

And with that, Leonard promptly stood up, and walked away.

Jim caught up with him on the street.

"What the hell, Bones? What happened? You can't not give her a chance because she's a barmaid-"

"She's still a barmaid, Jim." Leonard said, as he headed back to their apartment building. " _Still_ a barmaid, after ten years. That's why I'm not giving her a chance. Just keep looking."

"Well who do you want me to look for?" Jim asked, stopping dead and setting his hands on his hip. He seemed pretty annoyed. Leonard sighed, and took Jim across the street to get chinese food. Partly to apologise for snapping, and partly because he had promised to feed him.

~*~

They sat on the floor of Leonard's apartment, with Jim's laptop and a lot of files and photographs and sheets of paper, whilst Jim drew up a chart. It looked like one of those charts from a cop drama, loads of photographs and brightly coloured string, and a map of the states. It looked good.

"Mom took me to a lot of stakeouts." Jim said as he pinned a photo of Christine Chapel up onto the board. "Not a lot of baseball games, but a lot of stakeouts."

"Sounds like more fun." Leonard murmured, as he looked through his list.

"We need to find Jocelyn." Leonard continued, looking at her file. She was the daughter of a businessman, a pretty big one too, and she was the first girl Leonard had ever loved. They had been sweethearts at high school, breaking up when college came around.

"I'll give it a shot." Jim shrugged. "But you know, people like that, famous people, tend to have a lot of protection. It might take a while."

"Just try." Leonard said, throwing half a spring roll into his mouth and focusing.

They sat and talked for hours, long after the food was gone. Though it was about the list at first, the later it got the more they talked about other things, about their lives, about their friends, telling stories.

And yet in the morning, Leonard still went to go and find Carol Marcus, despite how he was feeling just a little bit closer to Jim.

~*~

Carol Marcus was a girl he'd met when he was a waiter in some English-themed cafe whilst he was at college. She was a sweet girl, and she had a hell of a lot of memories about home. Leonard knew because he'd heard them all.

She had gotten married, at some point. Had a kid. But now she was divorced and selling her house and Leonard was going to go and see it. Or rather, see her.

When he saw her at the front door, hair cut into a neat little bob and styled to perfection, sunglasses covering deep blue eyes, he gave Jim a shove. "Alright, you can go now."

"What? And miss the show? No way." Jim said.

"Just go!" Leonard hissed. Carol had spotted him, and was coming closer. "Go! Go on! Jim, I swear to god-"

"Leonard?" Carol asked, her voice clear and her accent think. "Oh my god, it's so good to see you!"

Leonard nodded, but he knew he would have to speak eventually, and Jim wasn't leaving. He took a deep breath, and said in what was the most fake British accent known to mankind- "Carol! It's see good to see you too, honestly."

Jim was in stitches by his side. "it's great!" He exclaimed.

Leonard elbowed him _hard_. "This is my neighbour, Jim." Leonard said, still in that stupid accent. "He was just coming to look at the house with me, but he's leaving now. Aren't you, Jim?"

Jim wheezed. Leonard turned to Carol. "How about we go and get a drink?"

~*~

Leonard returned three hours later, hanging his head.

"Well?" Jim asked when he entered the apartment. He had bought a pizza, and he offered a slice to Leonard as he came in.

"I fucked up." He admitted, throwing himself down onto the couch. "Forgot how to do the accent and started sounding like Eliza Doolittle." The accent really had been terrible. He winced just to remember it. "And then it kept getting worse and worse until I sounded like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. She left pretty quickly after that."

Leonard sighed, and ran his free hand through his hair. "This is a nightmare." He said, head shaking.

Jim gave him a look, like he actually felt sorry for him, like he cared, and then he looked back to his pizza. "Why not try further afield?" He asked. "Christine Chapel's in Washington, and she's running for senate."

When Leonard turned to look at him, he realised just how close they were, their arms and hips and legs brushing, their faces so close together. He was so close to leaning in to kiss him before he leaned back again, taking a bite of his pizza.

"Might as well." He shrugged. He was willing to try anything now.

~*~

Leonard had met Christine when she was a nurse in his emergency room, and he was actually kind of surprised to find that she had gone into politics. Although, she was very strongly opinionated, and she had a hell of a voice on her, so maybe he should have seen it coming.

After a brief meeting in the library, he agreed to be Christine's date to a dinner party that night for all the senators and politicians in town, established as well as up and coming. Whilst the president wasn't going to be there, there were still a hell of a lot of big names.

Christine walked on Leonard's arm, but there was absolutely nothing demure about her. She was so obviously in charge between the two of them, and Leonard knew it too.

They talked for what felt like hours with some of America's top politicians, Senator Pike and Senator Boyce, to name but a few. Christine grinned as she dragged Leonard from the room, patting his arm.

"Unbelievable! They didn't even know my name this morning, and now Pike wants us to- what was it?"

"Go to his boat house." Leonard grinned. He was actually having fun, much better than any of the dates he'd been on so far. Maybe Christine was the one after all.

"You know, we make such a good team." She grinned, and Leonard had to agree. It was going really well. "You know what we have to do now? We've got to get married!"

And then it wasn't going so well anymore.

"Well- uh- maybe we should, I don't know, kiss first?" Leonard suggested, feeling heat rush up to his cheeks.

"What?" Christine asked, brow furrowing. "Kissing-? Leonard, I'm a lesbian. I'm gay. Like, really gay. The gayest. And y'know, I actually only figured that out after I dated you."

Leonard blinked. He hadn't been expecting that. He felt somewhat insulted.

"So-?" He began, but she cut him off, stepping in close and speaking in hushed whispers.

"I want you to be my beard, Leonard. America's ready for a female president. Maybe. Probably. But a gay female president? Not gonna happen." She said, head shaking. "I need you to help me out. What do you say?"

Leonard swallowed thickly. "Can I get back to you?"

~*~

He got on the train in the suit he'd worn to the gala-dinner-party thing. He was feeling pretty god damn sorry for himself when his phone buzzed, a message from Jim, a photo.

It was Jim, sat in his bath surrounded by photos, holding up his iPod.

And really, Leonard couldn't help but smile.

~*~

"It was a bust." He declared, as he stepped into the apartment. "She's a lesbian. Wanted me to be her beard." He flopped down onto the sofa next to Jim again, and tilted his head back, groaning. "I think we should just quit this."

"Well I don't see why your number matters anyway." Jim said, shrugging his shoulders as he sipped his beer. "Seriously. It's just a _number_. But you deserve to be happy, Bones. So until we can find Jocelyn, I have something to cheer you up."

It's a taxi ride to the Oracle Arena, but Leonard knows it when he sees it. Jim produces some kind of pass and lets them in, grinning as they go.

"How the hell did you do that?" Leonard asked, voice full of wonder.

"Worked here last summer and swiped myself a pass. Got fired eventually, but I kept the pass." Jim grinned, leading Leonard onto the court.

Leonard was about to ask about the getting fired thing, but he decided instead to ask, "Isn't this illegal?"

"Probably." Jim nodded. "So let's enjoy it whilst we're here."

Leonard gave him a grin, looking at the hoop. "But what _are_ we doing here?" He asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jim countered, giving him a smirk. "We're playing strip horse.

~*~

An hour later, and Leonard had lost everything but his pants and his underwear, whilst Jim was just down to the latter. Not that Leonard minded. The view was pretty damn good from where he was standing.

Until Jim made the shot, and Leonard missed.

"Off come the pants!" Jim said in a singsong voice, ogling as Leonard stripped.

Leonard found he didn't mind the attention so much.

The game from there turned more into a game of basketball, defensive, getting up close and personal. More than once there was the feeling of skin on skin, Jim's arms locking around him to try and grapple the ball from him, the two of them down to nothing but their underwear.

They only left when they heard footsteps, a security guard or someone. They grabbed what they could, and left. Unfortunately, the only thing Leonard managed to grab was his pants. Jim gave him his shirt, shrugging wrapping his hoody jacket around himself.

They walked along the bay, along the water, chatting. Leonard found he could talk more easily to Jim than he could to anyone.

"You need to forget about this number thing." Jim said, bumping Leonard's shoulder with his own. "Be more spontaneous. Do what you want to."

"I can't just "be spontaneous"." Leonard said, putting on a funny voice as he quoted the other. "Because some ideas are bad ones. Like jumping into the harbour. That's a bad idea."

Jim stopped dead, reaching out to grab Leonard's arm. "That's a _fantastic_ idea."

Leonard shook his head. "Nope."

"Yes."

"No." Leonard tried to argue.

"Yes!" Jim cried.

"No- god damn it!" Leonard cried in turn as Jim stripped and headed to the edge. He had no choice but to follow him, shrugging out of the shirt and his pants and his underwear. When they got to the edge, naked, Jim reached out to take his hand.

Leonard pressed his lips into a thin line. He wasn't looking forward to this at all, but he was going anyway, because Jim was leading.

"Three, two-" Jim counted down, but it didn't matter. He dragged the reluctant McCoy into the water with him, grinning as they fell.

It was fucking _cold_.

"Shit!" Jim yelped as he resurfaced, wiping his hair out of his eyes. "This is cold!"

"Fuck!" Leonard yelled, using a far worse choice of language. "I told you this was a bad idea! It's a god damn _awful_ idea- frick!"

They shivered their way over to the ladder to hoist themselves out. They had to just try and dry out on the way home, back to Leonard's apartment, hoping they didn't get hypothermia.

"God damn it." Leonard hissed as he turned the heating up in his apartment, to a temperature that felt like a tropical jungle. It felt good. "I've never been this cold. Ever."

Jim grinned. "Then maybe we should share body heat."

"Nope." Leonard returned, shaking his head. "I'm just gonna keep your shirt to keep me warm."

"You can't keep my shirt." Jim said, following Leonard as the other went through to the bathroom, padding through his bedroom on the way there, to grab a towel. "People are always taking my shirts."

"You should start taking them back." Leonard said, sounding simply conversational as he dried off his hair.

"Mm." Jim hummed, and this time his voice was lower, and he stepped closer to Leonard, almost chest to chest. "Maybe I'll just take this one back right now."

He slowly peeled his shirt away from Leonard's skin, and he felt his breath catch in his throat as he looked at Jim, swallowing thickly. Suddenly his shirt was off and Jim's mouth was on is, and they moved back, towards the bed. Jim's tongue dipped into his mouth as he leaned over him, fingers trailing down to the button of his pants.

"Can we-" Leonard pulled away, catching his breath. "I can't go over 20, Jim. I can't."

Jim leaned down to kiss him again, pulling away and nodding. "I know. I know, Bones."

Leonard leaned into his kisses, Jim's hand resting on his stomach. It was warm against his cold skin, giving him goosebumps, and he sighed softly against Jim's lips.

"What if I put it in like that much?" Jim asked, fingers about two inches apart as he held them up for Leonard to see. "You wouldn't even feel it."

"I can't, Jim." Leonard murmured. He hoped he would understand, because he really didn't want to lose Jim.

But Jim nodded, and rubbed his hand in small circles over Leonard's stomach, leaning down to kiss him. "okay." He murmured. "We won't do that. But I am going to keep kissing you."

And really, Leonard was okay with that.

~*~

He woke up the next morning next to Jim, and he immediately smiled. Lying on his side, he watched as Jim slept. He noticed how long his eyelashes were, how his cheeks were a little flushed, and just how full his lips were.

And for once, Leonard noticed just how happy he was.

Jim stirred, and Leonard grinned wider, despite the morning breath.

"Hey." Jim murmured. He shifted a little, and gave Leonard a sleepy smile.

"Hey." Leonard murmured in return.

"So I was thinking," Jim began, reaching out to wrap and arm around Leonard's waist. "We do nothing today. We pig out, eat junk food, and watching mexican wrestling on pay per view."

"I would love to." Leonard murmured. "Really I would. But I have to go, darlin'."

"You have to go?" Jim asked, frowning as Leonard dragged himself out of bed, though not before pressing a soft kiss to Jim's cheek.

"Wedding stuff." Leonard told him. "M'Benga's gotta go pick up his suit today and I gotta help. Best Man duties and all that."

Jim nodded. "Well I'll wait right here. And we can do all of that when you can get back."

Leonard nodded as well as he got dressed, rushing himself out of the house. He'd overslept, but that didn't matter- he had Jim, and he was happy. Maybe his number didn't matter after all.

~*~

M'Benga shot all of that right down.

"You still don't have a date to the wedding?" He asked, as he shrugged into his tuxedo jacket, looking in the mirror. "You can't hook up with a bridesmaid. There'll all my family, I'll be obligated to kill you."

Leonard chuckled, and pulled on his own tux. It fit pretty well; maybe he'd try it on for Jim later.

"Actually, I have a date." He said, giving a shrug. "Jim's gonna be my date."

Over the time he'd spent with M'Benga planning the wedding, he had mentioned Jim a lot. And though he' talked smack about him at first, he was now feeling pretty damn smitten.

M'Benga was not impressed.

"Wait- Jim? As in Jim, your sleazy womanizing neighbour?"

Leonard nodded. He was still smiling. "He's... different. One you get to know him. He's not that bad. He's great actually."

"He's a liar." M'Benga said, and he shuddered at the pink tie but that was what his wife to be had ordered, and who was he to argue? "He sleeps around, Leonard, and you're his latest conquest. You were trying not to raise your number, right? You can waste another number on him."

And Leonard didn't think anything of it. He pressed his lips into a thin line as he walked home, his tux hidden away in a carrier, laid out so as not to be creased. He didn't think M'Benga was right. He knew Jim.

Didn't he?

Apparently not.

Because when he stepped into his apartment, Jim was through in the bathroom, getting washed. He hung his suit over the back of the sofa and went to go and get a drink from the fridge. On the way past, he passed the trash can. And in that trash can was a number, with the name Jocelyn Darnell beside it.

And then suddenly Leonard was pretty damn pissed.

"You're home." Jim said, grinning as he crossed the room. "I got the junk food, and I got coffee, and I have mexican wrestling raring and ready to go."

"Uh huh." Leonard murmured, looked up at him and trying to seem nonchalant. "So, have you heard anything new about Jocelyn?"

Jim frowned, and flopped onto the sofa, careful not to sit on Leonard's suit. "Uh, nope. I told you, rich people are hard to come by."

"Right." Leonard nodded. "So what the hell is this then?"

He held the piece of paper up, and Jim deflated, eyes closing as he sighed.

"Bones-" He began, but Leonard cut him off.

"Forget it, Jim. M'Benga was right." He moved to grab his tux, throwing it through into the bedroom to serve as a distraction. "You're a liar."

"I didn't think it mattered anymore, Bones!" Jim called.

"Just get out!" Leonard countered.

Jim stayed rooted to the spot. "I thought it didn't matter! I thought you had me now, and I thought we had something special!"

"I told you I couldn't raise my number." Leonard growled.

"What does your number matter?" Jim cried. "If she really loves you, like I love you, then your number wouldn't matter! Forget about the stupid number!"

"You wouldn't understand 'cause you fuck anything that moves, Jim! You're an ass, you don't know what the word commitment means, and I want you to get out of my apartment!" Leonard yelled.

Jim looked like he was going to cry, his face red, his hands balled into fists. He looked at Leonard, and then he nodded. "Fine." He spat. "Fine, I'll go. Find another date to your wedding! I wish you and Jocelyn all the best!"

The door slammed, and the sound rang through the apartment, ringing in Leonard's ears. He took a deep, and somewhat shaky breath, before he went to call Jocelyn.

~*~

Leonard and Jocelyn were childhood sweethearts. They dated in middle school right through to high school, to senior year, and almost up until college- until Leonard slept with someone else by accident, and they decided to just go ahead and go their separate ways.

But the date went well. They stated hanging out more and more, going on dates, going to big fancy galas where Leonard felt so out of place. She agreed to be his date to the wedding, and it was going well, right up until they got to the dance floor.

"I just thought it was crazy, y'know?" Jocelyn said, hooking her arms around Leonard's neck as they danced. "You calling me out of the blue, after so long. What made you do it?"

Leonard shrugged, hands on her waist as they swayed. "I was just ready to settle down. And I've, y'know, been with a few people more than I was expecting. So I thought back to some of the best people I've dated, and there you were."

Jocelyn chuckled, turning. She was definitely leading this dance. "How many people are we talking about?" She teased. "Nine? Ten?"

Leonard felt himself flush. "Uh- more like ten times two..."

"Twenty?" She asked, and she so obviously didn't believe him. He gulped, and nodded, but she shook her head. "As if you've had twenty partners." She laughed, pulling him close. "Can you imagine that? Gross. But it doesn't matter, Leonard. I'm going to be your last."

Jocelyn thought it was gross. Thought _he_ was gross. Leonard frowned as they turned, and he knew. He knew that he'd been wrong to listen to M'Benga, to listen to others when he should have listened to his heart, as cliche as it sounded.

He hadn't spoken to Jim in weeks, almost a month, not since their big bust up and he started seeing Jocelyn. But he knew he was going to a wedding, had a gig booked, and so he decided to go and find him.

"No. No, you won't." He said, pushing Jocelyn away and breaking her hold on his neck. He stepped away, tapping M'Benga on the shoulder. "I gotta go." He said. "I'll explain later. 's important. Enjoy the rest of your day."

He gave him a grin, as he left, grabbing his car keys and hoping someone would give Jocelyn a ride home.

~*~

He tried weddings up and down the city. He busted into so many, but there was no sight of Jim.

Until he came to the most high profile wedding of the year.

Some celebrity was marrying his model girlfriend. There was security on the door, and Leonard was _not_ on the guest list.

So he climbed over the wall.

"This is bullshit!" He spat, to himself, as he tumbled over the wall. "Fuck!"

He hoped the small group of children hadn't heard him.

Jim was just finishing his set, and suddenly Leonard felt bad. Just seeing him again brought back everything he had said, everything obscenity he had yelled at him, and it made his chest ache. He was't about to go up on stage to go and get Jim, and so he waited-

-and when his set was done, he almost _dragged_ him off stage.

"Bones- what the hell are _you_ doing here?" Jim asked, and he didn't seem mad. Just tired.

"I need to talk to you." Leonard said. Jim nodded, eyebrows raising, prompting him to go. "I was an asshole, Jim. A massive asshole. I'm so sorry."

Jim shook his head. "I was an asshole, Bones- I should have told you about Jocelyn. I'm sorry."

"No, no, I get it. I get it, Jim." Leonard nodded. "But you were right. My number doesn't matter- it _shouldn't_ matter. I'm asking you to give me a second chance, Number twenty-one."

Jim grinned. "You deserve it. Number three hundred and sixty-"

Leonard shushed him, silenced him with his lips. He kissed him long and hard, wrapping his arms around his neck and pulling him into him. He held him tightly, and he only pulls away when he absolutely has to breath.

Jim was totally right- his number doesn't mean anything. And he's more than happy with his 21.


End file.
